Dragon Ball (All Series)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, I just realized that the official title of this movie is Dragon Ball Super Super Hero....kind of reminds me of back when we had Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan....

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'm glad time finally feels like it's starting to move in Dragon Ball again, what with Pan clearly growing up to be more kindergarten age in this film. I also appreciate that it seems like this film will lean more into the goofy what with the title "Super Hero" and including Pan and exploring random silly details like Piccolo's house. According to the SDCC panel this is the most involved Toriyama's been in the scriptwriting of any of the films, so I'm curious to see how more of his sense of humor and storytelling shines through in the finished film. I'm also not opposed to the film being a 2D/CG animation hybrid unlike most people up in arms about it. The teaser with Goku's CG model being animated looked stylized well, and considering most of the concept art shown in the panel was 2D, I'm thinking more of it will be traditionally animated than folks are worrying about.

[Daikun]

R.I.P. Chris Ayres

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So I have to admit, I wasn't all that excited for Super Hero since I felt from the trailers it would feel like a filler movie and I wasn't digging the animation style. That said after seeing it I genuinely had fun with most of it. There are a laundry-list of issues I have with it, but that applies to pretty much most of modern Dragon Ball and even the later arcs of the manga, so it's not exclusively this movie's fault.

The CG animation is still not my thing but it worked better than I expected it to. What won me over was the character work and humor. Now contrary to marketing, Gohan doesn't get quite as much screen time as you would expect. He's more prominently featured here than in anything since Battle of Gods, but still feels like more of a supporting character until the final act. What I do love is that Piccolo is basically the main character of this movie for most if it, and I just love that. It's kind of refreshing to see Goku and Vegeta basically sidelined to just cameos, and having a movie focusing on just the supporting cast. It's also a geuinely funny movie for fans of classic Dragon Ball. And what's even better is that it's a sequel to the Red Ribbon Army saga, which as many of you know is my personal favorite arc in the entire series.

That said the final act sucks, IMO, not only because of a lame (IMO) villain replacing the villain we had up to this point (who was again a great tribute to classic Dragon Ball), but because it falls into all of the worst habits of late Dragon Ball and the movies in that it's a lot of mindless action with really weak story-telling and ridiculous plot conveniences. However the, the saving grace for me was that the final act/battle was relatively short, rather than being the entire second half of the movie.

Anyways, it was a nice pleasant surprise overall. If Broly can be considered the best attempt from modern Dragon Ball to recapture the feeling of DBZ, then Super Hero can be considered as the best attempt to recapture the humor and pure entertainment value of classic Dragon Ball.

[Avaitor]

I just saw Super Hero, and my Piccolo and Gohan-loving young self totally enjoyed it. I would have preferred traditional hand-drawn animation than the CG they used, but after a couple of minutes and some classic DB action, I think it turns out fine.

While I agree that the last act was a little disappointing, I still think that Super works better in movie format than as a series. I'd like to see more feature length stories that focus on more than just Goku and Vegeta fighting the next strongest force they can. Maybe next time we can have a story involving Krillin, Roshi, Yamcha and Tien, or a Future Trunks adventure. Or maybe the movie will be about Goten and Trunks, since they've finally grown up a little.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just saw Super Hero, and my Piccolo and Gohan-loving young self totally enjoyed it. I would have preferred traditional hand-drawn animation than the CG they used, but after a couple of minutes and some classic DB action, I think it turns out fine.

Part of the reason for this is because many of the key animation staff that worked on Broly have been tied up with other projects at Toei, most notably One Piece. The Wano arc is a very hyped up arc so Toei has had many of it's best animators working on several episodes of it (and it shows) and there's also Film Red coming out later this year. I suspect that some or even all of those animators will be used for future Dragon Ball projects again in the coming years, though.

While I agree that the last act was a little disappointing, I still think that Super works better in movie format than as a series. I'd like to see more feature length stories that focus on more than just Goku and Vegeta fighting the next strongest force they can. Maybe next time we can have a story involving Krillin, Roshi, Yamcha and Tien, or a Future Trunks adventure. Or maybe the movie will be about Goten and Trunks, since they've finally grown up a little.

I think this is the consensus with most people, including myself. Part of the problem with the TV series format was that despite not having to worry about catching up to the manga (which has become it's own thing at this point) it still felt very padded for time and the story arcs lacked the momentum of that constant driving force that was present in the original run of the manga.

The movies by necessity have to trim the fat and drop all of the extra baggage to focus on the core story, character beats, and humor, and that works so much better than the drawn out nature of the show. I have re-watched Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, and Broly several times, but can't bring myself to re-watch a single episode of the show (I mostly just revisit some of the better scenes and moments on YouTube).

Totally Not Mark also had a great video explaining why, despite some great animation, the fights lack the same excitement, weight, and impact that they had in the original series since they are used as a supplemental break in-between the story beats rather than being firmly integrated into the story-telling itself like they were in the original run of the manga, and that really does make sense when you think about it.

[Daikun]

New Dragon Ball anime coming next year for the franchise's 40th anniversary!

Although, I gotta ask... WTF is this?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Honestly, whatever it is, I'm willing to give it more of a chance then a straight-up continuation of Super, which I got really burned out on by the end.

As for this, I'm not surprised with the more "cute" and presumably comedic direction this is going in since Toriyama was said to be more involved in this project. The fans who are surprised tend to be specifically DBZ fans while anyone more familiar with the rest of Toriyama's work knows that he tends to prefer things more goofy and over-the-top, so what I'm seeing is right up his alley.

[Mustang]

Not sure how I feel about this one, considering I came up on Dragon Ball, but got really hooked on Z, and even then, abridged ruined Dragon Ball in its entirety for me. Like, I can never watch the original series because TFS did a better job with it (even though Bruce Falconer's tracks are goat'd). Get to Super, it's ok, I guess. I haven't watched nearly enough of it. I saw a lot of the key fights and that's about it.

I will always be that guy that care more about fights then goofy, silliness, so as a 1st reaction, no this is not for me, but at the end of the day this is still Dragon Ball so I won't dismiss it completely. Hell, who knows, I barely put aside time to watch anything these days so I may never get around to watching it anyway, but as long as YouTube exists I will definitely check out the fights.

[Avaitor]

I'm hopeful, while reading the manga in full has helped me to appreciate Z more as an adult, I'll always prefer the pacing of the original DB. I just hope that it sticks to that style and doesn't pull a GT, which tried to follow-up on Z's action with kid Goku and just couldn't make it work.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm sure it'll be fine, though my nitpick here is some of the child versions of these characters look nothing like they did when we actually saw them as kids. Like kid Chichi here looks nothing like Chichi from the first DB arc. They all just look like shorter versions of their adult selves.

And whenever this gets dubbed, I've still never gotten used to Clinkenbeard as kid Goku. I've read enough of the gossip to know why Nadolny will never come back, and I've gotten used to Gohan sounding different, but Funi could stand to recast Goku's child voice with someone who sounds more like he did in DB/GT.

[Daikun]

I've read enough of the gossip to know why Nadolny will never come back, and I've gotten used to Gohan sounding different, but Funi could stand to recast Goku's child voice with someone who sounds more like he did in DB/GT.

Did we ever find out what happened to Nadolny? I remember her as the lead in OK K.O. years ago on Cartoon Network, then she was just...suddenly recast after just a few episodes.

[Dr. Insomniac]

She has a history of DUIs. At least 4 according to this website. While I've seen others say she's been getting arrested for them since 2000.

[Avaitor]

It's also speculated that she and someone at Funi (possibly Sabbat) dated and had a falling out.

[Daikun]

Dragon Ball's infamous Chinese knockoff is now streaming on Freevee.